BUSY ‘PARKS AND REC’ CAST RECONVENE REMOTELY FOR CHARITY EVENT – The Republic

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Just say Knope! The cast of Parks and Recreation (8:30 p.m., NBC, TV-PG) return for a one-time charity special to raise funds for Feeding Americas COVID-19 Response Fund.

Set in the present day during our current pandemic, Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) tries to rally her colleagues (Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, Rashida Jones, Adam Scott, Retta, Rob Lowe, Chris Pratt, Aziz Ansari, and Jim OHeir) to see what they can do for the citizens of Pawnee. This Zoom-centric theme allows the cast to work from home while still appearing together.

The cast of Parks has certainly been busy. Poehler and Offerman appear together on NBCs craft-related series Making it.

Offerman also stars in Devs, a remarkable series about quantum computing and the nature of reality, streaming on Hulu.

Poehler has served as a producer and director on the Netflix series Russian Dolls, she has provided two voices for the animated Fox series Duncanville and produced the deranged Adult Swim series Three Busy Debras.

Rob Lowe does double duty for Fox, hosting Mental Samurai (9 p.m., r, Fox, TV-PG) and starring in their police procedural 9-1-1: Lone Star.

Rashida Jones co-stars in the Kenya Barris comedy #blackAF, now streaming on Netflix. Jones co-wrote a 2016 episode, Nosedive, for Black Mirror, about a future world dominated by a social media ratings app that creates a virtual caste system. It seems more prescient every day.

Greg Daniels, a writer/creator for Parks and Recreation has a new series, The Upload, debuting tomorrow on Amazon Prime.

A Parks and Recreation clip show (8 p.m.) will precede the special.

Tonight marks the season finale for Foxs Last Man Standing (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG). At their best, three-camera sitcoms can work like brilliant little plays, a wonderful place to explore character and dialogue. Frasier remains the best example of a sitcom that wears its theatricality on its sleeve.

At their worst, such sitcoms can seem stagy and the dialogue forced. Its amazing that such old pros like Tim Allen and Nancy Travis can sound so stilted. But in Last Man they seem like two amnesiacs encountering each other, as if for the first time.

The gales of canned laughter dont help. Neither does the set design. Mike (Allen) seems to work in a mall and return to a home with all of the personal touches of Hyatt.

Mike seems most comfortable at the end of the show, when he gets to explain things with his little Vlog. Last Man wears its ideology on its sleeve. And such sermons lend themselves better to monologues. Perhaps thats why so many of the conversations on Last seem strained and unnatural. Everybodys talking past each other.

A repeat Last Man (8:30 p.m.) follows the finale.

TONIGHTS OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

NBCs Hallmark-like weepy Council of Dads (9 p.m., r and 10 p.m., NBC, TV-14) begins its regular run.

An FBI agent (Keanu Reeves) infiltrates a gang of bank-robbing surfers in the 1991 thriller Point Break (8 p.m., Freeform, TV-14).

Tragedy strikes at a bowling alley disaster on Station 19 (9 p.m., ABC, TV-14).

Fighting City Hall on Tommy (10 p.m., CBS, TV-PG).

Annalise suspects everybody on How to Get Away with Murder (10 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).

Ryn discovers a haven for wounded mermaids on Siren (10 p.m., Freeform, TV-14).

Better Things (10 p.m., FX, TV-MA) wraps up its fourth season.

CULT CHOICE

Al Pacino and John Cazale star as hapless bank robbers in the 1975 thriller Dog Day Afternoon (10:15 p.m., TCM), directed by Sidney Lumet.

SERIES NOTES

Secrets and lies on Young Sheldon (8 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) Jimmy Kimmel hosts Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) The Gala becomes a battleground on Katy Keene (8 p.m., CW, TV-14) On two helpings of Man With a Plan (CBS, TV-PG), unmoored (8 p.m.), Adam harbors suspicions (9 p.m.).

Tax problems on In the Dark (9 p.m., CW, TV-14) Blind dates on Broke (9:30 p.m., CBS, TV-PG).

LATE NIGHT

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (11 p.m., Comedy Central) practices social distancing Chris ODowd appears on Conan (11 p.m., TBS, TV-14) Paul Giamatti is booked on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (11:35 p.m., CBS) Jimmy Fallon welcomes Seth MacFarlane, Gigi Hadid and Thom Yorke on The Tonight Show (11:35 p.m., NBC) Mandy Moore appears on Jimmy Kimmel Live (11:35 p.m., ABC) Machine Gun Kelly and Travis Barker appear on The Late Late Show with James Corden (12:37 a.m., CBS).

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BUSY 'PARKS AND REC' CAST RECONVENE REMOTELY FOR CHARITY EVENT - The Republic

Craig Wright Suing Everybody Leaves Horrible Taste in My Mouth: Roger Ver – U.Today

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Yuri Molchan

When talking with U.Today in an exclusive interview, famous Bitcoin Cash proponent Roger Ver mentioned BSV and Craig Wright suing famous people in the crypto sphere

Recently, U.Todayspoke withRoger Ver, a prominent crypto thought leader, entrepreneur and investor. While speaking on various blockchainsubjects, Bitcoin and the crypto industry in general, the topic of Bitcoin Cash SV emerged.

As for the technical side ofBSV, Roger Ver seems to have no issues. However, since BSV is listed only on a tiny number of exchanges, the former Bitcoin Jesus Roger Ver is not ultra-bullish on it.

Craig Wright, the frontman of the Bitcoin Cash SV party has a bone to pick with Ver the latter is one of those famous members ofthe crypto sphere who the self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto, Craig Wright, sued in the spring of 2019.

This, Ver says, has left a horribly bad taste in his mouth. Apart from Ver, Craig Wright also sued Vitalik Buterin, podcaster Peter McCormack, Twitter user hodlonaut (creator of the #faketoshi hashtag) and some others. This, inparticular, has preventedRoger Ver from using BSV.

Watch this space for the entire interview to be released Thursday of this week.

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Craig Wright Suing Everybody Leaves Horrible Taste in My Mouth: Roger Ver - U.Today

Cryptocurrency Definition – Investopedia

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What Is a Cryptocurrency?

A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that is secured by cryptography, which makes it nearly impossible to counterfeit or double-spend. Many cryptocurrencies are decentralized networks based on blockchain technologya distributed ledger enforced by a disparate network of computers. A defining feature of cryptocurrencies is that they are generally not issued by any central authority, rendering them theoretically immune to government interference or manipulation.

Cryptocurrencies are systems that allow for the secure payments online which are denominated in terms of virtual "tokens," which are represented by ledger entries internal to the system. "Crypto" refers to the various encryption algorithms and cryptographic techniques that safeguard these entries, such as elliptical curve encryption, public-private key pairs, and hashing functions.

The first blockchain-based cryptocurrency was Bitcoin, which still remains the most popular and most valuable. Today, there are thousands of alternate cryptocurrencies with various functions and specifications. Some of these are clones or forks of Bitcoin, while others are new currencies that were built from scratch.

Bitcoin was launched in 2009 by an individual or group known by the pseudonym "Satoshi Nakamoto." As of Nov. 2019, there were over 18 million bitcoins in circulation with a total market value of around $146 billion.

Some of the competing cryptocurrencies spawned by Bitcoins success, known as "altcoins," include Litecoin, Peercoin, and Namecoin, as well as Ethereum, Cardano, and EOS. Today, the aggregate value of all the cryptocurrencies in existence is around $214 billionBitcoin currently represents more than 68% of the total value.

Some of the cryptography used in cryptocurrency today was originally developed for military applications. At one point, the government wanted to put controls on cryptography similar to the legal restrictions on weapons, but the right for civilians to use cryptography was secured on grounds of freedom of speech.

Central to the appeal and functionality of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is blockchain technology, which is used to keep an online ledger of all the transactions that have ever been conducted, thus providing a data structure for this ledger that is quite secure and is shared and agreed upon by the entire network of individual node, or computer maintaining a copy of the ledger. Every new block generated must be verified by each node before being confirmed, making it almost impossible to forge transaction histories.

Many experts see blockchain technology as having serious potential for uses like online voting and crowdfunding, and major financial institutions such as JPMorgan Chase (JPM) see the potential to lower transaction costs by streamlining payment processing. However, because cryptocurrencies are virtual and are not stored on a central database, a digital cryptocurrency balance can be wiped out by the loss or destruction of a hard drive if a backup copy of the private key does not exist. At the same time, there is no central authority, government, or corporation that has access to your funds or your personal information.

Cryptocurrencies hold the promise of making it easier to transfer funds directly between two parties, without the need for a trusted third party like a bank or credit card company. These transfers are instead secured by the use of public keys and private keys and different forms of incentive systems, like Proof of Work or Proof of Stake.

In modern cryptocurrency systems, a user's "wallet," or account address, has a public key, while the private key is known only to the owner and is used to sign transactions. Fund transfers are completed with minimal processing fees, allowing users to avoid the steep fees charged by banks and financial institutions for wire transfers.

The semi-anonymous nature of cryptocurrency transactions makes them well-suited for a host of illegal activities, such as money laundering and tax evasion. However, cryptocurrency advocates often highly value their anonymity, citing benefits of privacy like protection for whistleblowers or activists living under repressive governments. Some cryptocurrencies are more private than others.

Bitcoin, for instance, is a relatively poor choice for conducting illegal business online, since the forensic analysis of the Bitcoin blockchain has helped authorities to arrest and prosecute criminals. More privacy-oriented coins do exist, however, such as Dash, Monero, or ZCash, which are far more difficult to trace.

Since market prices for cryptocurrencies are based on supply and demand, the rate at which a cryptocurrency can be exchanged for another currency can fluctuate widely, since the design of many cryptocurrencies ensures a high degree of scarcity.

Bitcoin has experienced some rapid surges and collapses in value, climbing as high as $19,000 per Bitcoin in Dec. of 2017 before dropping to around $7,000 in the following months. Cryptocurrencies are thus considered by some economists to be a short-lived fad or speculative bubble.

There is concern that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are not rooted in any material goods. Some research, however, has identified that the cost of producing a Bitcoin, which requires an increasingly large amount of energy, is directly related to its market price.

Cryptocurrency blockchains are highly secure, but other aspects of a cryptocurrency ecosystem, including exchanges and wallets, are not immune to the threat of hacking. In Bitcoin's 10-year history, several online exchanges have been the subject of hacking and theft, sometimes with millions of dollars worth of "coins" stolen.

Nonetheless, many observers see potential advantages in cryptocurrencies, like the possibility of preserving value against inflation and facilitating exchange while being more easy to transport and divide than precious metals and existing outside the influence of central banks and governments.

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Cryptocurrency Market Update: Bitcoin whales claims rally to $9,500 is a pump and dump movie – FXStreet

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Bitcoin made a spectacular move on Wednesday and Thursday amid warnings from the United States Federal Reserve that the economy is staring into a "medium-term disaster. The regulator has decided to keep the lending rates near zero and urged that more stimulus be advanced if and when needed. Global economies are on the verge of collapse as governments channel most of the resources towards the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Fed Chair, Jerome Powell, the US economy will fall further on the account of three factors including the uncertainty of the Coronavirus curve, reduced production capacity and the crisis global dimension.

The largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin made a remarkable move from levels under $8,000 to highs close to $9,500. The price action has left most investors in surprise because such a move was unexpected, especially two weeks before the halving. However, Joe007, a renowned trader has brushed off the surge as a definition of an illiquid altcoin. Another trader, ZeroHedges Tyler Durden in regards to the rally said:

Hilarious cycle its been through. My hope is that the halving will financially destroy as many Chinese miners as possible and we can actually have a legitimate bull market instead of this pump and dump movie.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin has retreated from $9,476 (April high) to the current $9,164. Its trend remains bullish even as the volatility continues to increase. The earlier published analysis found that Bitcoin had the potential to correct above $10,000 before the halving. However, the price action will depend on buyers ability to support above $9,000.

Ethereum also soared to new monthly highs after stepping above the resistance at $220. The bulls extended the price action above $225 but the momentum hit a wall at $227. In the meantime, ETH/USD has corrected under $220 and exchanging hands at $218.

On the other hand, Ripple surged to highs above $0.23 amid the widespread bullish action. Although the bulls had their eyes glued on $0.25, a high was reached at $0.2357, marking the end of the rally. At the time of writing, XRP/USD is valued at $0.2262 amid a growing bearish trend. If Ripple bulls can find support above $0.22 they will have the time to gather the energy to tackle the resistance at $0.24 and $0.25.

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Cryptocurrency Market Update: Bitcoin whales claims rally to $9,500 is a pump and dump movie - FXStreet

Circuit Breakers Could Be Coming to CryptoBut Will they Be Effective? – Finance Magnates

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As the bones of the economic structures that our societies rely on have been laid bare, the fragility of the global economic ecosystem has been revealed. This is particularly true for novel markets that dont have circuit breakers and other protections in place that many traditional markets do: in particular, cryptocurrency.

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Indeed, perhaps more than in most traditional marketsor at least, in unique waysthe economic fallout from the coronavirus has dealt a number of blows to crypto: at times, prices cliff-dived; the trading frenzy that ensued revealed vulnerabilities in the trading infrastructure that crypto holders rely on.

Of course, the economic havoc that the coronavirus wreaked was certainly not unique to crypto: when financial markets began to react to the coronavirus, cryptocurrency prices were (at times) less volatile than, for example, oil prices.

Still, the chaos that the coronavirus has wrought on crypto has ignited an important debate in the cryptocurrency sphere: should crypto markets have circuit breakers or other, similar protections in place? And indeed, is their eventual presence on cryptocurrency exchanges an inevitability?

In a way, the very concept of protections like circuit breakers goes against the written or unwritten law of the cryptocurrency ethosmany cryptocurrency traders and community members are ardent advocates of a truly free crypto market.

Pankaj Balani, chief executive of cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform Delta Exchange, told Finance Magnates that indeed, having a blanket protection such as a circuit breaker is at odds with the core belief of a free market and that of a demand-supply driven price discoveryideas that are quite popular in the crypto community.

Additionally, Jose Llisterri, co-founder of cryptocurrency derivatives exchange Interdax, echoed Balanis sentimentshe told Finance Magnates that in his view, there should not be protections in place, so crypto can continue to operate as a truly free market, purely driven by supply and demand.

Putting circuit breakers in place violates this principle, as theres always one side of a particular trade that is adversely affected by a pause in trading, he explained.

However, not bringing circuit breakers into the cryptocurrency trading space could allow a different kind of price distortion to take placewith less control, and potentially higher consequences.

Because of the nascent stage of the industry, and as evidenced during the March crash, the liquidation engines of the most popular derivatives trading venues are oftentimes cannot handle the [trading] load, Llisterri explained.

This ends up distorting the market.

This phenomena was also explained by Miko Matsumura, co-founder of the Evercoin cryptocurrency exchange and general partner at Gumi Cryptos Capital, in an interview last month.

Specifically, Miko referenced the infrastructural failures that may have temporarily locked in traders funds on cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX on March 12th, 2020, also known as Black Thursday.

BitMEX as an examplewhat we saw was $700 million in leveraged margin trading essentially getting liquidatedso they got kind of blown up he told Finance Magnates. This sudden and large-scale liquidation create[d] a local pricing phenomenon.

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There [was] so much leverage on margin trading that when peoples stacks get liquidated, it creates a locally lower point for the Bitcoin price than the global price. But the problem is that if your assets are stuck in that bubble, youre unable to access the global pricethat creates more potential for panic-selling and those kinds of things.

Kyle Samani, co-founder and managing partner at Multicoin Capital, also explained this particular phenomenon in a report that was issued in mid-March on the corona-related crisis.

During times of crisis, [exchanges] become so congested that arbitrageurs cannot keep prices in line across venues, causing massive dislocations on individual exchanges, he wrote.

In the case of BitMEX, massive dislocations on a single exchange caused Bitcoin to dip below $4,000 for 15-30 minutes; however, this would not have happened if the market operated correctly.

Therefore, it may well be that crypto exchanges and traders are damned if they do, and damned if they dont; in other words, circuit breakers may not be an ideal fix for preventing chaos on crypto markets, but until cryptocurrency exchange infrastructure can be designed to support large-scale liquidations without price distortion, circuit breakers may be the best solution.

Jose Llisterri said that for this reason, some may find it sensible to seek a middle-ground and add a minimal set of breakers that ensure an orderly market at all times while preserving the ideological aspects as much as reasonably possible.

And in fact, the practice of implementing protections such as or similar to circuit breakers already seems to have increased in the time since the mid-March coronavirus chaosthough they arent quite as easily-triggered as those in traditional financial markets.

After the Covid market rout, some crypto derivatives exchanges have introduced measures similar to circuit breakers, although these work differently than the traditional markets counterparts, Llisterri explained. For example, on traditional venues such as NYSE, trading is completely halted after specific percentage price deviations (7%, 13%, 20%).

For example, on March 9th, 2020, and again on March 16th, circuit breakers were triggered at the NYSE as the DJIA fell more than 7% at the open.

However, Llisterri explained that instead, crypto exchanges, such as FTX, Huobi or Interdax, resort to more suitable solutions without causing disruption to the market, Llisterri explained.

These solutions range from; unwinding gracefully the positions of traders operating on high leverage, locking the price movements around trading bands which prevent exacerbated flash crashes/spikes, to improving the calculations of their indices with formulas robust to outliers.

But are these kinds of protections sufficiently effective?

Pankaj Balani said that the unique qualities of the cryptocurrency trading ecosystemspecifically, the fragmented nature of the industry and that of liquidity in the crypto marketsprovide a set of challenges that make designing protections difficult.

In other words, there are a huge number of crypto exchanges, many of them unregulatedas such, traders who werent happy with an environment equipped with circuit breakers could easily move their business onto another exchange.

Indeed, having an effective circuit breaker is difficult to implement given the current state of the crypto ecosystem, Balani said. To have an effective circuit breaker, one that can absorb market shocks, a consensus on price limits, time limits, and other mechanics is needed between various spot and derivatives exchanges.

Michael Creadon, a board advisor at Inveniam Capital Advisors, shared a similar point with CoinTelegraph: circuit breakers wont work because there are too many exchanges and no centralized rule-making body he said.

If Coinbase freezes up but the market moves another 50% on Binance, you wont be able to get out. So youre damned if you do, damned if you dont. For long term hodlers, I think this is less important. For day traders, this is very important. Circuit breakers are a good thing, but hard to deploy when there are hundreds, if not thousands, of trading venues.

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Circuit Breakers Could Be Coming to CryptoBut Will they Be Effective? - Finance Magnates

Kraken Expands Trading Pairs to 155 with New Conversions – Finance Magnates

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Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange operating from the United States, is adding 11 new trading pairs through expanded options for converting ether (ETH), USDT and Pound Sterling (GBP).

Prior to todays move, Kraken users had to convert their crypto holdings into fiat currencies in order to buy another crypto coin. The exchange is finally adding direct cryptocurrency-to-cryptocurrency conversions.

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For example, converting Bitcoin Cash (BCH) to ETH on Kraken previously required two distinct trades. But with the new BCH/ETH trading pair, clients can save more fees as this conversion can be done directly, allowing clients to simply sell BCH directly for ETH but theres some inevitable spread

The move comes as the San Francisco-based platform is turning to traditional forex trading to allow their cryptocurrency traders to expand their horizons and begin trading into a $6 trillion market. With the news, Krakens total number of trading pairs grows to 155,further diversifying their portfolios and trading options.

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Not to be confused with its fiat-crypto offering, the new service allows Kraken users to directly trade between CAD, CHF, EUR, GBP, JPY, and USD. The venue already allows users to trade between cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin against various fiat currencies, namely the US dollar, the Canadian dollar, Euro, British pound and Japanese yen.

Most recently, the Swiss franc joined the roster of fiat currencies thatKraken currently supports. But unlike its trading service for crypo, the exchange is not providing margin trading on its forex offering at launch.

Kraken has recently joined the Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN), developed by crypto-friendly lenderSilvergate Bank, to enable its customers to deposit and withdraw US dollars from their bank accounts with no fees.

Further trading pairs will be added to the exchange in the future, and Krakens stablecoin fee schedule will apply for current instruments, the company said.

While the number of trading platforms is growing, Kraken has recently made infrastructure upgrades to create an ecosystem that integrates both fiat and crypto trading in one platform. Now to stand out from the crowd, Kraken allows traders to set up advanced orders such as stop loss and take profit options through its web-based trading portal.

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Kraken Expands Trading Pairs to 155 with New Conversions - Finance Magnates

Ethereum Near Levels That Sent Price 25% Down in 2019 – newsBTC

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The price of Ethereum hit an eight-week high after taking cues from its top rival, Bitcoin, which too rose to record levels on Wednesday.

The ETH-to-dollar exchange rate established an intraday high at $211.60, up 7.61 percent since the London midnight open. The move uphill came as a part of a broader uptrend that started after the pair bottomed out near $90 in mid-March. Nevertheless, Ethereum was still trading more than 25 percent lower from its year-to-date high of circa $288.

ETHUSD rising steadily but risks deeper downside correction | Source: TradingView.com, Coinbase

The cryptocurrency post noon pulled back from $211-high. But it hinted to close above the level heading into the upcoming tradingsessions. The latest hope that the Federal Reserve would maintain its near-zero interest rates supported the upside move narrative in the cryptocurrency market.

Optimism for an extended price rally also took cues from bitcoin, whose bullish bias has grown stronger ahead of its mining reward halving on May 12, 2020. The correlation coefficient between Ethereum and Bitcoin is 0.79 an almost-perfect linear correlation. If bitcoin rises further due to halving narrative, then Ethereum could follow suit.

While Ethereum could quickly close above $212-resistance level, which also coincides with the 61.8% Fibonacci level in the chart above, its real battle is with a price ceiling at $226 the redded horizontal line.

Ethereums recent upside pullbacks have tested $226 as their resistance targets. Back in 2019, the cryptocurrency tested the level twice in a 30-day timeframe, only to see its price falling back by an average of 25 percent. In the first quarter of 2020, the price broke above it, but that also pushed its momentum indicator (RSI) into an overbought region.

ETHUSD Daily RSI heading into overbought zone | Source: TradingView.com, Coinbase

Almost all the recent fractals match the current trend scenario. Ethereum is closing towards $226, but its RSI stands overbought, which means a downside correction could happen.

On a positive note, a pullback would find one equally-strong support at 20-daily EMA (blued wave). The curve in March failed to keep Ethreum from falling, primarily because of the panic-selling led by the fast-spreading Coronavirus pandemic. But with the weak fundamentals fading, it could protect the cryptocurrency from extending its pullback.

Photo by Luke Ellis-Craven on Unsplash

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Ethereum Near Levels That Sent Price 25% Down in 2019 - newsBTC

The University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford fast-tracks final year medical students – WIFR

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ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) -- The University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford fast-tracks final year medical students to help on the COVID-19 pandemic response.

Alex Stagnaro-Green is the regional dean for the college of medicine and says 44 out of the 54 fourth year medical students graduated early to fight the pandemic.

"Being able to graduate early, but also potentially then to make an impact on what's going on with the pandemic I think was very exciting for our students," said Stagnaro-Green.

Stagnaro-Green says administrators were able to modify the elective courses to help the students speed up their last year.

Nelson Nwumeh is a University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford Class of 2020 graduate and says he feels honored to help.

"This is what we signed up for and if nothing else it's motivation to actually practice what we preach," said Nwumeh.

Despite the amount of schooling, these new doctors are entering the field during a stressful and uncertain time.

'It's going to be tough there's going to be situations you've never encountered situations that no amount of reading or in hospital time could prepare you for," said Nwumeh.

"So do I think they're ready definitely and do I think it's a difficult transition under the best of time," said Stagnaro-Green.

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The University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford fast-tracks final year medical students - WIFR

United Way, Milan Puskar, Mon Health and WVU Medicine help care for area’s unsheltered population during COVID-19 – Dominion Post – The Dominion Post

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Janette Lewis couldnt sit back and wait for a solution to appear. Like many times before, she decided to get involved.

Nearly every day on her way to work, the United Way of Monongalia and Preston Counties community impact director saw the homeless gathering in groups along the streets of downtown Morgantown. And when the news of the novel coronavirus pandemic began to spread, Janette immediately thought of them and knew something would have to be done.

She wasnt alone. Individuals Janette worked with on a regular basis to address homelessness in the community thought the same thing, and they were quick to contact each other to set up an initial meeting.

In addition to Janette, task force members include Rachael Coen, of the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness; Kari Demasi, of Bartlett Housing Solutions; Laura Jones, of Milan Puskar Health Right; David Goldberg, of Mon Health; Todd Karpinski, of WVU Medicine; and Tom Bloom, of the Monongalia County Commission.

Following the Centers for Disease Controls recommendations for helping those who were unsheltered, Janette and the rest of the Homeless Task Force first set out to create a homeless encampment, complete with hand-washing stations and donated tents. However, when the City of Morgantown wouldnt give an answer on where an encampment could be set up, it was onto plan B.

That happened to be a motel. The local United Way and a lawyer on the organizations board of directors put together a contract for Motel 6 in Star City, and the United Way paid an initial $15,000 deposit to begin housing the homeless there.

About 30 individuals have already been housed in the motel, and task force members have been rallying to get everything done, from keeping residents fed and in good health to providing prescription meds and even finding permanent housing after the pandemic ends.

Bartlett is a shelter-in-place facility, helping around the clock. Mon Health and WVU Medicine are taking turns supplying dinners for the motel residents. Friendship House received lunches from Morgantowns Community Kitchen to hand out. Friendship House is also calling the residents often to see what is needed and is monitoring them for COVID-19 symptoms.

And Janette and the United Way are picking up donated supplies, such as tents and hand sanitizer, and working to make sure food pantries are still on track to support the residents as needed.

Its not a project one person or even one organization can handle on its own. Thats why its important to have so many people working together for the good of our community, Janette said.

We may be separate right now, but were together in spirit. And it warms my heart to see every person on this task force working so hard to keep our homeless and our whole community safe, Janette said.

If you would like to donate to the United Ways COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund, text COVID19MPC to 41444 or visit igfn.us/e/-4_68A.

Amanda Posey is the director of marketing and communications for the United Way of Monongalia and Preston Counties. She can be reached at amanda@unitedwaympc.org.

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United Way, Milan Puskar, Mon Health and WVU Medicine help care for area's unsheltered population during COVID-19 - Dominion Post - The Dominion Post

How to Re-Stock the Modern-Day Medicine Cabinet, According to Dr. Nicole Avena – Business Wire

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NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--At a time when health and wellness are on the forefront of our minds, Nicole Avena, Ph.D. urges people to remember that positive diet and fitness choices today will yield a healthier you tomorrow. Furthermore, the products you keep on hand present an opportunity to make sure you are doing all you can to boost your immune system while maintaining an overall healthy lifestyle.

This is a good time to ask yourself if your medicine cabinet is equipped to supplement your health goals and if it is not, it might be time to rethink your strategy. What you put into your body greatly impacts how you feel, and you want to make sure that the items in your trusted medicine cabinet pack an immunity punch. Thats why its important to focus on time-tested items with a variety of benefits, says Dr. Nicole Avena.

Below, Dr. Avena offers her medicine cabinet-must haves:

While your bodys immune system does its best to fight whatever comes its way, its important to give your system a boost and arm it with the best tools available. We could all benefit from taking the time to restock our medicine cabinet with supplements and multipurpose, natural items proven by time to be some of the best help your body can get, adds Avena.

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How to Re-Stock the Modern-Day Medicine Cabinet, According to Dr. Nicole Avena - Business Wire

Avoid face irritation, acne while wearing masks – Baylor College of Medicine News

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The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about many changes to peoples lives, including wearing a protective face mask while out in public in some cities. Although wearing a non-medical grade face mask is an important way to keep the virus from spreading, it is possible that the mask can cause skin irritation and acne breakouts, according to a dermatology expert at Baylor College of Medicine.

Your skin barrier helps protect you in many ways, but friction, rubbing and sweat trapped underneath a mask can cause the skin barrier to break down, said Dr. Rajani Katta, a dermatologist and clinical assistant professor at Baylor. Whenever you get an impairment of the skin barrier, you may start to see irritation or irritant dermatitis. It can cause redness, marks and flaking skin. For some people, those same factors can trigger acne.

Katta offers tips on how to avoid irritating or breaking out your skin while wearing protective masks:

Find the right fabric

One of the most important things to pay attention to is the fabric that you are using, because that can make a big difference, she said.

If you are prone to acne, Katta recommends avoiding masks made of fabrics like polyester that tend to trap sweat underneath. Using a mask with an inner layer made from an absorbent material such as cotton can help absorb sweat and is less likely lead to breakouts.

For sensitive skin, avoid fabrics with a rough texture that can cause irritation. If you are making your own masks, Katta suggests using a softer fabric for the inner layer of the mask that is against the skin.

The outer layer can be a thicker weave to provide more protection from microbes, while the inside is a softer fabric, Katta said. A lot of the instructions for homemade masks say that layers may be more helpful in terms of providing protection from microbes, but that might also be a strategy to help protect your skin.

Be careful with products

If you have dry or sensitive skin, prepping your skin with moisturizer before wearing a mask may help fight irritation, Katta said. On the other hand, if you are acne prone, she recommends avoiding certain kinds of makeup or products that are thick and greasy, like foundation.

These products can get trapped under the mask and possibly cause more skin issues, Katta said.

If you choose to wear makeup or a skin care product, double check to be sure it is non-comedogenic so that it does not clog your pores.

Alternate or wash masks

It is essential to avoid reusing the same mask to stop the spread of germs, but it can also have an effect on the skin. For reusable fabric masks, Katta recommends frequently washing them in hot water after wearing them, and making several so you can rotate them.

It is important to launder masks on a regular basis since they are going to collect sweat and microbes that are sitting on your skin, Katta said. When washing masks, Katta said to avoid detergent or dryer sheets with fragrance and additives that could irritate the skin.

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Avoid face irritation, acne while wearing masks - Baylor College of Medicine News

UW Medicine says nasal swabs it bought from China are OK despite contamination to other parts of coronavirus testing kits – The Seattle Times

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Seattle Times staff reporter

Scientists at UW Medicine have determined that tens of thousands of nasal swabs the health system imported from China were not affected by contamination discovered in other parts of its testing kits.

UW Medicine took extraordinary measures in early April to airlift some 80,000 kits for statewide use during a national shortage of testing swabs and the specimen-preserving liquid needed for diagnostic testing.

The health care system imported the testing kits after making a connection through a Seattle businesswomans relationship with a Chinese sales contact, who had a loose connection to a doctor in the countrys Hubei province who helped secure the supplies. An Amazon-chartered jet flew some $125,000 worth of testing kits from Shanghai to the U.S.

The story of the testing kits,which The Seattle Times detailed this month, illustrated the need for testing materials and the lengths and financial risks officials were willing to go to get more kits.

After tens of thousands of the kits were distributed to partners including the Washington State Department of Health and Public Health Seattle & King County, UW Medicine determined a small percentage of vials contained specimen-preserving liquid contaminated with a common bacterium. Some of the liquid had begun to change from hot pink to orange in color, a sign that its chemistry had altered.

UW Medicine recalled the testing kits after discovering the problem and last week began to test the nasal swabs included separately from the vials to ensure they were safe for use.

The nasal swabs were not affected by the contamination, spokeswoman Susan Gregg said in an email.

We have tested samples of the swabs and have not found any contamination that would preclude their use, Gregg said. We plan to use the swabs at UW Medicine with tubes of sterile saline for transport.

UW Medicine recommended that local and state agencies in receipt of the testing kits discard the vials of preserving liquid, but that it was up to their discretion to use the nasal swabs, Gregg said.

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UW Medicine says nasal swabs it bought from China are OK despite contamination to other parts of coronavirus testing kits - The Seattle Times

April 30 – Mercer University School of Medicine to Hold Virtual Commencement this Saturday – Savannah Business Journal

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April 30, 2020 - Mercer University School of Medicine will hold a virtual commencement on Saturday, May 2, at 2 p.m. At that time, a video of the ceremony will be posted on the medical schoolscommencement webpagefor viewing.

Since many of the graduates will soon depart for residency programs around the country, the School of Medicine is proceeding with its commencement on the originally scheduled date while adapting it to a virtual format due to social distancing measures being taken during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Saturdays virtual ceremony will include nearly all the same components of a traditional commencement, including a welcome from Mercer University President William D. Underwood, greetings from School of Medicine Dean Jean Sumner, M.D., and the introduction of several special guests by Mercer Provost D. Scott Davis, Ph.D.

The special guests numerous notable Georgians representing a diversity of fields such as politics, music and sports will each share words of encouragement with the School of Medicines Class of 2020, composed of native Georgians set to begin the next step in their journeys to use their talents to better the state and beyond.

The Schools founding mission is to educate physicians and health professionals to meet the primary care and health care needs of rural and medically underserved areas of Georgia.

Graduation is a very special occasion for these young people who have worked so hard and long for advanced degrees. They have studied hard, some for up to 20 years, to reach this milestone, and often their families have sacrificed to assist them. It is disappointing that they cannot experience an in-person ceremony to mark this milestone, but they have accepted this like the true professionals they have become, said Dr. Sumner. The School of Medicine is working diligently to develop a very special commencement that we hope will recognize our graduates and their families. Mercer University School of Medicine, our faculty, staff and students are very proud of them.

Each of the 178 graduates will be shown on screen as his or her name is read.

Degrees to be conferred include the Master of Family Therapy, Master of Science in Preclinical Sciences, Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences and Doctor of Medicine.

The Universitys three other commencements have been rescheduled. The School of Law ceremony will take place Aug. 7 at 1 p.m. in Hawkins Arena in Macon. The Macon ceremony will take place Aug. 8 at a time to be announced in Hawkins Arena, and the Atlanta ceremony will take place Aug. 9 at 3 p.m. in the Infinite Energy Center in Duluth.

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April 30 - Mercer University School of Medicine to Hold Virtual Commencement this Saturday - Savannah Business Journal

New option for treating upper tract urothelial cancer – Baylor College of Medicine News

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Treatment of low-grade upper tract urothelial cancer usually involves radical surgery to remove the kidney and ureter, highlighting the need for improved treatments. An international team led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine reports in the journal The Lancet Oncology that an innovative form of local chemotherapy using a mitomycin-containing reverse thermal gel offers a kidney-sparing treatment option for this rare cancer affecting 6,000 to 8,000 new patients in the United States every year.

Urothelial cancer refers to a cancer of the lining of the urinary system. While about 9 of 10 urothelial cancers arise in the bladder (lower tract), a small subset arises in the upper tract, in the lining of the kidney or the ureter, the long, thin tube that connects that kidney to the bladder, said corresponding and senior author Dr. Seth P. Lerner, professor of urology and Beth and Dave Swalm Chair in Urologic Oncology at Baylor.

To spare patients having to undergo radical kidney surgery, physicians treated the cancer with a novel formulation of mitomycin, a form of chemotherapy that urologists use to treat low-grade cancers of the bladder. Standard formulations of mitomycin are administered in a water-based solution that is washed away by the urine produced by the kidney, shortening the time the drug is in direct contact with the urothelium, which lessens the effect of the treatment. To overcome the shortcomings of standard mitomycin treatment, Lerner and his colleagues evaluated a mitomycin-containing reverse thermal gel (UGN-101, brand name Jelmyto, manufactured by UroGen Pharma).

UGN-101 is semi-solid at body temperature and becomes a viscous liquid at colder temperatures that can be injected via a catheter passed from the bladder into the renal pelvis where these tumors occur, Lerner said. The reverse thermal properties of UGN-101 allow for local administration of mitomycin as a liquid, which subsequently transforms into a semi-solid gel depot as it warms up following instillation into the urinary upper tract. Normal urine flow dissolves the gel depot, allowing tissue exposure to mitomycin over a period of 4 to 6 hours.

The researchers previously reported proof-of-concept and preliminary safety data for UGN-101 in treating 22 patients with upper tract urothelial cancer in a compassionate-use program. In the current study, Lerner and his colleagues conducted a phase 3 single-arm clinical trial to further evaluate the efficacy of the innovative reverse gel delivery of mitomycin in low-grade upper tract urothelial cancer.

Seventy-one patients received six weekly treatments with mitomycin-containing reverse thermal gel. Patients who had a complete response (complete disappearance of the tumor) were offered monthly treatments for up to 11 additional months. Efficacy of the treatment was evaluated using urine cytology (a test to look for abnormal cells in a patients urine), ureteroscopy (an examination of the upper urinary tract) and biopsy (if warranted) three months following the initiation of therapy.

The treatment was beneficial. Following the initial six weekly treatments, 59 percent of the patients had no residual tumors, including patients with cancer deemed unresectable at diagnosis, who represented 48 percent of the overall treatment population. There were side effects, including urinary tract infection, hematuria (blood in urine), flank pain and nausea, but the severity and frequency were as expected from patients who are undergoing similar interventions. The study will continue to monitor the durability of the initial response out to 12 months.

The treatment has been recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and became the first and only approved non-surgical treatment available for patients with low-grade upper tract urothelial cancer.

The clear benefit is that patients get to keep their kidney. For people who have one kidney, this option also removes the need for dialysis, Lerner said. Other potential beneficiaries would be patients for whom, because of other conditions, it would be too risky to perform an operation to remove the kidney. Now they have an option for treatment.

Other contributors to this work include Nir Kleinmann, Surena F. Matin, Phillip M. Pierorazio, John L. Gore, Ahmad Shabsigh, Brian Hu, Karim Chamie, Guilherme Godoy, Scott Hubosky, Marcelino Rivera, Michael ODonnell, Marcus Quek, Jay D. Raman, John J. Knoedler, Douglas Scherr, Joshua Stern, Christopher Weight, Alon Weizer, Michael Woods, Hristos Kaimakliotis, Angela B. Smith, Jennifer Linehan, Jonathan Coleman, Mitchell R. Humphreys, Raymond Pak, David Lifshitz, Michael Verni, Mehrad Adibi, Mahul B. Amin, Elyse Seltzer, Ifat Klein, Marina Konorty, Dalit Strauss-Ayali, Gil Hakim and Mark Schoenberg.

For a complete list of the contributors affiliations and declaration of interests visit the publication. This trial was supported with funding from UroGen Pharma.

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New option for treating upper tract urothelial cancer - Baylor College of Medicine News

Doctor on frontline issues warning for COVID-19 treatment: ‘This medicine … will surely kill them’ – TheBlaze

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Dr. Tom Yadegar, a specialist in critical care medicine who has been treating some of the most extreme cases of the coronavirus, joined Glenn Beck on the radio program Tuesday to share some important information with the public and doctors around the world about treating COVID-19.

As the intensive care unit director at Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center in California, Yadegar and has been treating patients with COVID-19 for about seven weeks and has not lost a single patient. He was recently asked to command four more regional hospitals because he and his team are performing well above other hospitals in the Los Angeles area.

Yadegar created a protocol to determine which patients with COVID-19 also have what's called "cytokine storm syndrome" -- a process by which the body's immune system rapidly releases too many cytokines into the blood.

"The immune system kind of goes awry. It doesn't act normally. The immune system gets super ramped up, and instead of attacking the virus, it attacks the patient's own vital organs," Yadegar explained. "It's actually [the patient's] own immune system that's causing the problem, not necessarily the virus.

"Don't get me wrong. This is a deadly virus. Just like the influenza virus, it can definitely cause pneumonia. It can definitely cause respiratory failure. If the patient has emphysema or heart failure, it can definitely exacerbate those," he added. "But this [coronavirus] was doing something unique. This was doing something that I really hadn't seen much in my 20 years, where it was activating the immune system. And then the immune system was causing all the destruction in the lungs."

Yadegar noted that, while a virus triggering an autoimmune disease is not necessarily an "unknown thing," the COVID-19 virus "does it at an extraordinary pace" and to a significant number of patients. He stressed the importance of recognizing that not every patient with COVID-19 will develop an autoimmune disease and that every case must be treated individually.

"One thing that I can't stress any harder to you and your listeners. There isn't necessarily one test, and there isn't one particular treatment plan. Every patient has their own kind of individual disease," he said. "You can't treat everyone with the same treatments. There isn't a one-size-fits-all for this disease. You have to do your due diligence. You have to look at the patient in front of you and then, you know, come up with a treatment for the disease that that patient is manifesting. You can't just go through the ICU, and start handing out these medicines. If you give this medicine to someone who doesn't need it, you will surely kill them."

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Doctor on frontline issues warning for COVID-19 treatment: 'This medicine ... will surely kill them' - TheBlaze

8: Neurohacking – 10 Futurist Predictions in the World of …

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Will there be a day when you say "I can't read your mind, you know!" and the reply will be "Oh, stop it -- of course you can!"? It could happen. Neuroscientists are finding ways to read people's minds with machines, and although this has been in the works for decades, real progress is being made by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and elsewhere. Translating electrical activity from the brain by means of decoding brainwaves is one way to help sufferers of dementia, for example, who have complications with neurotransmitters relaying thoughts into comprehensible speech or holding thoughts long enough to get them out verbally before they're forgotten.

On the other hand, it is more than a little frightening to know that science and machines could soon have access to our innermost thoughts. Implications for neurohacking into people's thoughts have also been studied in relation to neuromarketing, which targets people's brains by manipulating their wants and desires through marketing and advertising. Our thoughts and actions could actually be hijacked by a form of media that makes us think we're getting what we want, when really, we're going for something our brains may only think is supposed to be good [sources: IGF; Carmichael].

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8: Neurohacking - 10 Futurist Predictions in the World of ...

Pandemics and the survival of the fittest | TheHill – The Hill

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When the influenza virus first struck down a soldier in March 1918 on a military base in Kansas, much of the country was mesmerized by The Black Stork, a silent film advocating the elimination of children born with severe illnesses or disabilities. The eugenics movement the effort to improve the human gene pool by isolating and sterilizing those considered unfit to reproduce was in full swing. Today, in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic, the dominant theme is saving lives, regardless of the economic cost. Yet a century ago, medical and scientific authorities, egged on by religious leaders, supported a violent form of social Darwinism.

Soon after Charles Darwin published his evolutionary theory based on the survival of the fittest, anthropologists such as Francis Galton seized upon its social implications: Use the tools of science to improve the human species. What Nature does blindly, slowly, ruthlessly, man may do providently, quickly and kindly, Galton told a London society in 1909. Galton coined the term eugenics good birth to promote his social vision. It must be introduced into the national conscience, he said, like a new religion.

Eugenics advocates proceeded with missionary zeal. A year after Galtons speech, Charles Davenport, a professor of zoology at the University of Chicago, with grant money from the Carnegie Institution of Washington, created a national Eugenics Record Office. The aim: to gather scientific data to support the eugenics agenda. Beginning in 1912, a series of international conferences was held in London and New York, creating a global venue for a burgeoning class of eugenicists and their supporters. They built ties to institutions such as Harvard, Princeton and Columbia universities and New Yorks Museum of Natural History. What began as a fringe, pseudo-scientific idea became mainstream thinking in premier scientific and academic institutions.

The 1918 influenza pandemic, despite killing the young and healthy as easily as the old and sick, did nothing to curb enthusiasm for eugenics. In Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu and How It Changed the World, Laura Spinney writes that one of the big lessons of the catastrophe was that it was no longer reasonable to blame individuals for catching an infectious disease. Thats not exactly right: The lesson for many scientific authorities was that the racial stock was in grave danger of degeneration.

In fact, it appears that the devastating effects of the influenza virus killing at least 50 million people worldwide in a matter of months stirred an apocalyptic gloom in educated circles. Book titles in the 1920s tell the story: The End of the World; Social Decay and Degeneration; The Need for Eugenic Reform; Racial Decay; Sterilization of the Unfit; and The Twilight of the White Races. Population planning was promoted by psychiatrist Carlos Paton Blacker, longtime general secretary of the Eugenics Society, who warned in a 1926 book, Birth Control and the State, of a biological crisis unprecedented in the history of life.

To many religious leaders, the science of eugenics was a progressive solution to a raft of social, moral and spiritual ills. Writing in the journal Eugenics, Harry F. Ward, a professor of Christian ethics at Union Theological Seminary in 1919, explained that eugenics, like Christian morality, was aimed at removing the causes that produce the weak. In a 1928 winning entry for a national eugenics sermon contest, Rev. Kenneth MacArthur intoned: If we take seriously the Christian purpose of realizing on earth the ideal divine society, we shall welcome every help which science affords. The Rev. W.R. Inge, a professor of divinity at Cambridge University and one of the best-known clergymen of his day, was a devout believer in eugenics. In books, essays, and a weekly newspaper column, Inge complained about humanitarian legislation that assisted these degenerates, who possess no qualities that confer a survival value. They posed a mortal threat to Western civilization, he argued, and should be quarantined and eliminated.

The scientific community used its immense cultural authority to persuade democratic lawmakers to get on board. The American Eugenics Society founded in 1922 and supported by Nobel Prize-winning scientists hoped to sterilize a tenth of the U.S. population. California led the way, using its 1909 sterilization law to target the unfit and feebleminded, i.e., the poor, the infirm and the criminal class. Today, in battling the coronavirus, California has scrambled to acquire more hospital ventilators and even considered the mass release of its inmate population. But in the aftermath of the influenza outbreak, groups such as the Human Betterment Foundation lobbied for the involuntary sterilization of thousands of California residents in state hospitals and prisons. Thirty-two other states adopted similar eugenic policies.

What turned the tide of opinion against eugenics? The racist barbarism of Nazi Germany the cries of the victims of Auschwitz revealed to the world the appalling logic of eugenics. Yet there were other voices as well: the conservative and traditionalist Christians who never were taken in by the promises of a human biological paradise. In 1922, the influential Catholic thinker G.K. Chesterton published Eugenics and Other Evils, the only book of its time unabashedly opposed to the movements claims and objectives. Indeed, Chesterton anticipated the totalitarian direction of the eugenic agenda, which he derided as terrorism by tenth-rate professors.

William Jennings Bryan, an evangelical Christian often caricatured for his opposition to the teaching of evolution in public schools in the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial is also worth recalling. The textbook that Bryan denounced, A Civic Biology, openly promoted the ideology of eugenics. After reviewing case studies of families with significant numbers of feeble-minded and criminal persons, the books author rendered a judgment: They take from society, but they give nothing in return. They are true parasites. In his closing argument in the trial, Bryan insisted that he was not opposed to science, but to science without the restraints of religious belief.

Science is a magnificent force, but it is not a teacher of morals, he explained. If civilization is to be saved from the wreckage threatened by intelligence not consecrated by love, it must be saved by the moral code of the meek and lowly Nazarene.

Perhaps civilization has learned that lesson, at least partially. The heroic efforts to rescue as many people as possible from the current pandemic regardless of their age, identity or physical condition is evidence that the teachings of Jesus, the Nazarene, have not been fully forgotten.

Joseph Loconte is an associate professor of history at the Kings College in New York City and the author of A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War. The trailer for his forthcoming documentary film based on the book can be found at hobbitwardrobe.com. Follow him on Twitter @JosephLoconte.

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Pandemics and the survival of the fittest | TheHill - The Hill

Trump’s Immigration Order Was Drafted by Officials With Ties to Hate Groups, According to Report – Southern Poverty Law Center

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White House senior adviser Stephen Miller and Robert Law, chief of the Office of Policy and Strategy for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), played roles in drafting Trumps order, The New York Times noted on April 21. Both Miller and Law have close connections to anti-immigrant hate groups, helping underscore the influence racist think tanks have had in shaping U.S. policy during the Trump era. Trump signed the order into law on April 22, marking an unprecedented step for restricting immigration into the U.S. in the modern age.

Miller promoted material from the anti-immigrant hate group Center for Immigration Studies (CIS)to conservative website Breitbart News in 2015, prior to becoming Trumps de facto immigration czar. He also shared a link from the white nationalist website VDARE to Breitbart around the same time, and pitched scores of racist stories to their editors, as Hatewatch previously reported. Law is a former lobbyist for the anti-immigrant hate group Federation for American Immigration Reform(FAIR), having served as their lobbying director and director of government relations from 2013 to 2017. He is a Trump-era appointee of USCIS and joined that agency in 2018.

President Donald Trump speaks during the daily briefing of the coronavirus task force at the White House on April 22 in Washington. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The late John Tanton, a notorious racist and eugenicist, founded FAIR and provided critical support in the creation of CIS. Both are non-profit groups that have gained significant access to influential policymakers during Trumps first term. Each group has also promoted the writing of white nationalists and far-right activists who traffic in debunked pseudoscience purporting to connect race to intelligence in humans. As an example of their often-overlapping worldviews, both CIS and FAIR have argued during the COVID-19 pandemic that immigrants trapped in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention should be kept there, despite threats to their lives and safety caused by the virus.

Trumps order, which is scheduled for 60 days but can be extended, is being executed under the auspices of protecting American workers during COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this claim, the order does not impact foreign-born guest workers entering the U.S., only those applying for green cards. The administration has also blocked asylum seekers during the pandemic. ProPublica reported on April 2that this is the first time asylum seekers have been denied an opportunity to make their case in court in 40 years.

Trump first announced he would be signing the order on the night of April 20 through his Twitter account, and white nationalists and neo-Nazis on that website immediately celebrated the news. Extremists have long trumpeted the notion of a moratorium on immigration as a crucial step towards building a country for white non-Jews only.

Trump should sign the immigration moratorium order at the Statue of Liberty, white nationalist pundit Scott Greer posted to Twitterin the immediate aftermath of Trumps announcement, mocking a favorite cultural target of the racist right.

Hatewatch reached out to the White House for comment about Miller and Laws connection to hate groups but did not immediately receive a response.

Hatewatch obtained more than 900 emails Miller sent to Breitbart News editor Katie McHugh during 2015 and 2016, when he was working as an aide to Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, and later, working as an adviser on Trumps presidential campaign. Miller demonstrated an interest in white nationalist and nativist literature in those emails, as well ramping up deportations of the undocumented, and stopping legal immigration into the U.S. outright.

Miller discussed the subject of stopping legal immigration on Aug. 4, 2015, in an email exchange with Garrett Murch, who also served as an aide to Sessions at that time.

Murch, Aug. 4, 2015, 6:22 p.m. ET: [Talk show host] Mark Levin just said there should be no immigration for several years. Not just cut the number down from the current 1 million green cards per year. For assimilation purposes.

Miller, Aug. 4, 2015, 6:23 p.m. ET: Like [Calvin] Coolidge did. Kellyanne Conway poll says that is exactly what most Americans want after 40 years of non-stop record arrivals.

Miller expressed admiration about President Coolidge in his emails to Breitbart News because he signed into law the 1924 Immigration Act. Based on eugenics, the act placed race-based restrictions on who could immigrate into the U.S. Adolf Hitler also praised the act for this reason in his book Mein Kampf.

Miller emailed to McHugh a link from VDARE, a white nationalist website that has long called for a complete halt to immigration into the U.S. Peter Brimelow, the groups founder, wrote a post on April 21 titled Trump Has Put an Immigration Moratorium In Play. Not Enough But Something, referring to the order. He noted in his commentary that halting immigration in 2012 would have played a role in preserving a white majority in the U.S., a central goal of white nationalists.

And whites known until the 1965 Immigration Act as Americans would have been 68% of the population, instead of 63%, Brimelow wrote, analyzing the imagined impact of what stopping immigration during the tenure of President Obama would have accomplished.

The 1965 Immigration Act, also known as Hart-Celler, put an end to the Coolidge-era racial quota laws that both Miller and Hitler praised. Miller derided Hart-Celler in his emails to Breitbart News and urged that publication to write articles criticizing it.

Prior to joining the Trump administration in 2017, Law served in multiple rolesat FAIR, including as the lobbying director and the director of government relations.

Robert Law of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. (Photo via Western States Center)

FAIR founder John Tanton consistently promoted racist views about immigrants. In a Jan. 26, 1996, letter to Roy Beck of NumbersUSA about Californias immigrant population, Tanton questioned whether minorities could ever run an advanced society. He believed in eugenics, a pseudoscientific practice embraced by Nazi Germany, which purports to instill superior genes in humans through the process of selective breeding. In a letter to the late Robert K. Graham, a California-based multimillionaire and eugenicist, on Sept. 18, 1996, Tanton expressed his belief that less intelligent individuals should logically have fewer children.

From 1985 to 1994, FAIR received approximately $1.2 million in assistance from the Pioneer Fund, a eugenicist organization founded in 1937 for the purpose of pursuing race betterment by promoting the genetic blueprint of white persons who settled in the original thirteen states prior to the adoption of the constitution.

Dan Stein, FAIRs current president, articulated beliefs that mirror those expressed by Tanton. During an Oct. 2, 1997, Wall Street Journal interview with conservative journalist Tucker Carlson about The Intellectual Roots of Nativism, Stein asked, Should we be subsidizing people with low IQs to have as many children as possible and not subsidizing those with high ones?

While Law was employed with FAIR, working under Stein, he lambasted sanctuary cities in a 2017 FAIR legislative update, writing that they allow criminal aliens to be released back into communities, often to recommit crimes. He also harshly criticized the Obama administrations Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, an executive order implemented to protect from deportation undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children.

[DACA recipients] parents made the choice to bring them here and defy our immigrations laws and just because you have children doesnt mean that you have a human shield that exempts you from any form of enforcement, Law said in a FAIR podcast in 2017, Media Matters reported.

Law co-authored a FAIR report, Immigration Priorities for the 2017 Presidential Transition, in November 2016 that outlinedthe type of anti-immigrant legislative agenda the group wanted to see the Trump administration enact.

[The Trump administration] must lead the nation in formulating an immigration policy that sets and enforces limits on legal immigration; eliminates to the greatest extent possible illegal immigration; and protects American workers, taxpayers, and our most vulnerable citizens, the co-authored report stated.

The report argued for limiting legal immigration into the U.S., including measures targeting the number of immigrants admitted via Temporary Protected Status (TPS), the refugee and asylum programs. TPS is an immigration status given to foreign nationals present in the U.S. who cannot return to their country of origin due to events such as armed conflict or an environmental disaster. In early 2018, the Trump administration took steps to block residents of majority non-white countries from receiving TPS, specifically from Haiti, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. Haiti is roughly 95% black, according to government statistics. Trump referred to these nations as shithole countries during a closed-door meeting with lawmakers, according to a report in The Washington Post.

In November 2019, Stein remarked on the Trump administrations employment of former FAIR staffers, saying, It certainly is delightful to see folks that weve worked with in the past advance and contribute to the various efforts of the administration, most of which we support.

Historian Carly Goodman wrote in The Washington Post on April 22 that the Trump administration was capitalizing on the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to enact an anti-immigrant agenda.

Why suggest an immigration ban? Goodman wrote in her analysis. Because times of crisis create opportunities for anti-immigration advocates to cast blame on outsiders and transform policy in ways they have long sought, to arrest what they perceive as demographic change and the loss of a white America. Trumps emergency measures therefore could outlive his presidency.

The Trump administration has enacted a flurry of policies targeting immigrants since the COVID-19 pandemic started to unfold, including: suspending all routine visa services at U.S. embassies and consulates on March 20, expelling all asylum seekers at the U.S. border with Mexico as of March 21, temporarily suspending refugee admissions as of March 19, banning undocumented college students from receiving emergency assistance as of April 21, and ordering a 60-day temporary ban of access to green cards for specific groups of people from abroad as of April 22.

Despite the ongoing public health crisis created by COVID-19, the Trump administration is also projectedto issue 340,500 deportation orders in the year ending Sept. 30, 2020, an increase from 215,535 in 2019, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a Syracuse University research group that tracks the impact of government policies.

As with Trumps initial announcement of an immigration order, these policies have been welcomed by far-right extremists.

Photo illustration by SPLC

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Trump's Immigration Order Was Drafted by Officials With Ties to Hate Groups, According to Report - Southern Poverty Law Center

Letter to the editor: Donald Trump’s sinister ways – The Sun Chronicle

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To the editor:

John Wades letter to the editor (Does the president want us to kill ourselves? Voice of the Public, April 28) hits the nail on the head.

Donald Trumps pattern of separating children from their families and keeping them warehoused inhumanely; making health insurance impossible for many to obtain; ignoring the advance of coronavirus and evidence that it affects older adults and people with disabilities disproportionately; inadequate funding for cities with a larger portion of minority populations; recommending the use of hydroxychloroquine with the side effect of deadly heart complications; and finally, his suggestion to ingest disinfectant is an ominous paradigm.

We know he praises white supremacist groups, adopts their language and calls them good people. Consistent with the goals of the eugenics and white supremacy movements, he implements policies to eliminate people of color, immigrants, poor, disabled, old, and sick. Its not exactly murder, but it is death-making.

Donald Trump is not ignorant or a buffoon; he has a purpose and it is sinister.

Bertha Young

Attleboro

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Letter to the editor: Donald Trump's sinister ways - The Sun Chronicle

Larry Summers Is a Dead Albatross Around Biden’s Neck – The Nation

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Larry Summers watches Barack Obama and Joe Biden speak at the White House. (Brooks Kraft LLC / Corbis via Getty Images)

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In his bid to consolidate support within the Democratic coalition, Joe Biden keeps signaling that hell govern as a progressive. In an interview with Politico published on Saturday, Biden declared that the $2 trillion spent so far on stimulus needs to be a a hell of a lot bigger. According to Politicos Michael Grunwald, Biden sounded like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in calling for much stricter oversight of the Trump administration, much tougher conditions on business bailouts and long-term investments in infrastructure and climate that have so far been largely absent from congressional debates.Ad Policy

I think theres going to be a willingness to fix some of the institutional inequities that have existed for a long time, Biden told Grunwald. Milton Friedman isnt running the show anymore.

These are welcome words to anyone who believes recession-wracked America needs a massive injection of Keynesian spending, ideally structured around a Green New Deal to help tackle climate change. But can Biden be trusted to keep his word? After all, his own long record as a Wall Streetfriendly centrist makes it hard to credit his newfound economic populism.

Further, some of Bidens top advisers are anathema to progressives. As Grunwald notes, This week, Biden has taken flak from the left for including the corporate-friendly Democratic economist Lawrence Summers on internal calls.

Larry Summers, a Harvard economist who held senior posts under both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, has a record that is even more dismaying than Bidens. Going back decades, Summers has opposed big stimulus spending, regulation of Wall Street, and pushes for economic equality.

There are two main objections to Summers: his personality and his politics. He has a well-documented history of being an overbearing boss, a know-it-all with a habit of publicly humiliating his underlings and colleagues. Christina Romer, who served as chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Obama administration, complained that Summers treated her like a piece of meat.

Summerss stormy tenure as president of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006 was cut short by a faculty revolt, motivated by his browbeating of African American professors such as Cornel West, his claim that women werent doing well in the sciences because of innate cognitive inferiority in their math skills, and his support of a protg who had run roughshod over conflict-of-interest regulations while running an economic reform program in Russia. (In recent years, a fresh controversy has emerged from Summerss tenure as Harvard president involving donations from the notorious child molester Jeffrey Epstein).Current Issue

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As appalling as Summers might be on a personal level, his politics are even worse. Joe Biden might be ready to bid adieu to the era of Milton Friedman, the right-wing economist who was one of the major architects of neoliberalism, but Larry Summers most definitely is not.

In a 2006 New York Times opinion piece written on the occasion of Friedmans death, Summers wrote, I feel that I have lost a heroa man whose success demonstrates that great ideas convincingly advanced can change the lives of people around the world. Making a small demurral over Friedmans lack of concern for social justice, Summers aligned himself with the neoliberal thinkers worldview. Not so long ago, we were all Keynesians, Summers wrote. Equally, any honest Democrat will admit that we are now all Friedmanites.

Summers was not merely being polite out of respect for a recently departed eminence. Rather, he was being candid in describing himself as a Friedmanite Democrat, someone who belongs to a left-of-center party but constantly tugs it to the right.

Summerss Friedmanite politics can be seen in virtually everything hes done in public life. During the Clinton administration, he opposed the efforts of Asian countries to impose capital controls during the economic crisis of 1997. He also pushed for the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, a deregulatory move that allowed commercial banks to run hog wild with risky investments, a major factor in the 2008 economic crash.

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As Michael Hirsh noted in National Journal in 2013:

As a government official, [Summers] helped author a series of ultimately disastrous or wrongheaded policies, from his big deregulatory moves as a Clinton administration apparatchik to his too-tepid response to the Great Recession as Obamas chief economic adviser. Summers pushed a stimulus that was too meek, and, along with his chief ally, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, he helped to ensure that millions of desperate mortgage-holders would stay underwater by failing to support a cramdown that would have allowed federal bankruptcy judges to have banks reduce mortgage balances, cut interest rates, and lengthen the terms of loans.

According to Robert Kuttner, co-editor of The American Prospect, Hirch paid a price for documenting Summerss history. Kuttner claims that after Summers personally complained to David Bradley, then the publisher of Atlantic Media, which owned National Journal, Hirsh was advised to seek other workhe ended up moving to Politico and then to Foreign Policy, though no errors were ever found in the Summers piece and no correction was ever issued.

Underlying all of Summerss actions is a firm belief in the fundamental rightness of the existing economic order and the enormous inequality it produces. During the early days of the Obama administration, Summers told a reporter, One of the reasons that inequality has probably gone up in our society is that people are being treated closer to the way that theyre supposed to be treated. Summers opposes a wealth tax. In October 2019, he made the strange argument that if the wealth tax had been in place a century ago, we would have had more anti-Semitism from Henry Ford and a smaller Ford Foundation today. In fact, Henry Ford spent lavishly on anti-Semitism. Nor did Fords philanthropy make up for his bigotry. The two sometimes went hand in hand, as with the Ford Foundations support of eugenics in the early 20th century.

When Barack Obama floated the idea of nominating Summers to be chairman of the Federal Reserve in 2013, the move was opposed not just by progressive senators like Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown but also by their moderate colleagues like Jon Tester and Heidi Heitkamp. Summers was simply too tainted.

If Joe Biden wants to prove his bona fides to progressives, hell have to cut his ties to Larry Summers.

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Larry Summers Is a Dead Albatross Around Biden's Neck - The Nation